Man is jailed after posting cyanide

Sidney Kilmartin was sentenced on Tuesday at the US District Court in Portland, Maine.

Kilmartin was charged with sending cyanide to Andrew Denton of Hull. He was also charged with advertising and mailing a substance he said was cyanide to several suicidal people. It was really Epsom salts.

Kilmartin sent the real thing to Mr Denton after Mr Denton had threatened to report the fraud.

Kilmartin, 56, faced a maximum sentence of life in prison. His defence lawyer said a fair sentence would range from zero to 20 years because of his history of mental illness. Kilmartin, of Windham, Maine, was arrested in 2014 and found guilty in 2016.

In 2014 it was reported that a man from the US had been arrested for allegedly selling cyanide to a Hull man who later killed himself. Mr Denton, 49, was found dead in Holland Street in December 2012.

His blood contained cyanide and detectives found a series of online exchanges between Mr Denton and a man in the US. Humberside Police said Mr Kilmartin had used a pseudonym when he offered Mr Denton potassium cyanide for sale and advice on how to take it.